Two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi recorded objections at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions and orders issued in the name of the Election Commission without, they said, their knowledge or approval, The Indian Express reported.
The objections, including four on a single day, related to key aspects of electoral roll management, including the registration and deletion of voters, changes to the statutory Form 6 and the functioning of the Commission's voter database.
Sandhu and Joshi also raised concerns over the "gradual centralisation" of the electoral roll database in Delhi, alleging that state-level officials were being denied proper access to the system used to maintain voter rolls, the report said.
In one instance, Sandhu and Joshi separately wrote to the Cabinet Secretary over changes in the allocation of work concerning the IT infrastructure handling electoral rolls.
The two commissioners had also objected to changes made to Form 6, which is used by new voters to register themselves. Joshi recorded in May that the statutory form could not be altered without amending the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. Sandhu subsequently concurred with him.
The report said Sandhu later described the changes to Form 6 as "unauthorised and illegal" and called for their immediate removal.
The objections also covered the filing of appeals against voters included in the electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in West Bengal and software-related issues in Goa that prevented local election officials from recording decisions on the eligibility of 97 voters.
The Election Commission is a three-member constitutional body comprising the Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners. Under the 2023 law governing the commission, its business is to be transacted, as far as possible, unanimously, with differences to be decided by majority.
The Indian Express reported that the objections were copied to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The report said the Commission did not respond to its queries on the concerns raised by the two commissioners.
